


Treasures of Jamaica Plain

by Vim_Refresh



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Comforting, Friendship, Gen, Treasures of Jamaica Plain, goofing off with hubflowers, prewar world actually sucked, quotes from the game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-17
Updated: 2016-08-17
Packaged: 2018-08-09 10:55:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7799026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vim_Refresh/pseuds/Vim_Refresh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Sole Survivor, Danse, and Hancock search for the Treasures of Jamaica Plain. The search prompts my Sole Survivor to talk about the past, both historical and personal. It gets a little dark, because of the prewar world was a dystopia, and then there was a nuclear apocalypse. </p><p>Spoilers for the Jamaica Plain quest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Treasures of Jamaica Plain

**Author's Note:**

> ‘Find the Treasures of Jamaica Plain’ is one of my favourite miscellaneous quests in Fallout 4. The companion comments there are cool, and I like the parallels between the treasure and the Sole Survivor. 
> 
> This story is set before Blind Betrayal, in case there is any confusion.

Preston had asked Ruby to set up a new settlement awhile back, but she was only bothering with it now. She didn’t want the Minutemen to spread themselves too thin, across too many settlements, and she wouldn’t invite settlers to a location she didn’t think could be defended. In the meanwhile, she had gathered enough components to make a generator and a good number of turrets. Heavy laser turrets were Ruby’s solution to many of life’s problems.  
  
Along with Dogmeat, she had enlisted the help of Danse and Hancock for her expedition, and together, they made short work of the raiders along the way. Even better, they had only bickered with each other for the first half of the journey. Danse seemed to have realised that Ruby usually only interfered when he used racially based insults, so he limited himself to criticising Hancock’s chem use. Ruby considered this progress. Kind of.  
  
“Hubflowers,” Danse pointed out as they walked. He always helped Ruby harvest plants.  
  
“Making psycho, crew cut? You could have just asked for some of my stash,” Hancock joked.  
  
Danse protested indignantly, but Ruby chuckled and explained, “It’s for wildflower tea. Codsworth figured out a recipe. Help me out?” She exited her power armour, and she and Hancock started collecting the bluish-purple flowers. Danse stood guard; it was how he usually helped.  
  
Once Hancock had gathered a small bundle of hubflowers, he handed them to Ruby. This distracted her enough for him to snatch her general’s hat from her head. She was wearing it today instead of her power armour helmet. Before she found her own tricorn hat, she would playfully steal Hancock’s. Now they both stole each other’s. Today though, Hancock threaded a hubflower’s stem through the stitches on the hat’s side, then plopped it back on her head.  
  
Ruby laughed, then seized Hancock’s hat and repeated the gesture. “Now we match,” she said.  
  
“Are you two finished fooling around? Danse asked, clearly annoyed.  
  
“What, you jealous?” Hancock gleefully replied. He thoroughly enjoyed whenever Danse was irritated.  
  
Ruby jokingly offered to duct tape a flower to Danse’s helmet, and to her absolute astonishment, he agreed. She was fairly certain his acquiescence was his idea of a humour. Danse’s deadpan jokes usually caught her off guard. Danse wore his flower for a fair chunk of their journey, until a vertibird flew overhead, and he hastily tore it off.

 

  
***

  
  
As the future settlement came into view, Hancock suddenly took interest. “Ain’t this Jamaica Plain?” he asked. “Supposed to be some ancient treasure buried around here. Up for a dig?”  
  
“If there’s really buried treasure, I hope it’s something that the Brotherhood would find useful,” Danse responded.  
  
Ruby chuckled and said, “I don’t think it’s buried. The pamphlets say it’s an exhibit. It probably wasn’t too impressive either, or I would have heard about it prewar. I’m curious though. My best guess would be an art exhibit, or a rock collection or something.”  
  
“No foolin’?” asked Hancock, clearly disappointed. “Was hoping for guns, jewels, expensive booze, or something.”  
  
“People still pay for jewellery these days?” asked Ruby.  
  
“Some of the pretentious pricks from the Upper Stands spend small fortunes on them.” Hancock replied. “Like to show off their wealth while they look down on everyone. Useless snobs.”  
  
“It does seem needlessly extravagant,” replied Danse, “Their resources could be better used to benefit their city.”  
  
Hancock gave Danse a strange look, and Ruby realised they had just agreed on something. When she had mentioned Jamaica Plains, Piper had made a joke about the treasure being metaphorical. “The real treasure is you!” she had said in a ridiculous voice. Ruby made a mental note to report back to her that the true treasure had actually been friendship. She amused herself.  
  
“I guess jewellery’s never been useful,” Ruby mused aloud. Her family had been wealthy before the war, and they probably had more in common with the Upper Stands residents than she was comfortable with. She had _tried_ to use her wealth to help people, but her successes had been few and hard fought. She was doing so much better now.  
  
“Hey, maybe we’ll get lucky and it’ll be the prewar world’s largest collection of bottle caps,” Ruby said, giggling. If that happens, drinks are on me, with steak for you, Dogmeat.  
  
Dogmeat wagged his tail. He knew what ‘steak’ meant.  
  
The town in front of them seemed typical, with half collapsed houses and explosive hazards in the form of long abandoned cars. No signs of raiders or super mutants, but Ruby could smell rotten flesh, even at that distance. Ferals, just like the dead treasure hunter’s note had warned. She was regretting her choice of headgear; tricorn hats didn’t have air filters. No wonder Danse was wearing his helmet.  
  
With the three of them, fighting the ferals was easy enough. The hardest part was honestly remembering which ones had been shot. Twice, Ruby was startled by a feral’s body suddenly rising and charging her. The second time, she stumbled backwards and landed on her ass. The loud clang of her power armour alerted a few more ferals, and she might have been in danger, had she been alone.  
  
After Danse dispatched those enemies, he helped her to her feet, reminding her to watch her step on the rubble. Danse was always very protective of her, and the only reason she didn’t consider it overbearing was because he made it perfectly clear that he trusted her to protect him as well.  
  
With the area finally cleared, they turned their attention to looting the ruined buildings.  
  
“Can you imagine how nice it would have been to live in a place like this?” Danse asked. “Oh... never mind,” he stuttered, clearly embarrassed to have forgotten Ruby’s past.  
  
“Well, it was obviously safer than life today, but I preferred the city. Neighbours usually weren’t so nosey, and there was a lot more to do. I wound up being really bored in the suburbs.”  
  
“I hear ya,” said Hancock. “Small town livin'. Quiet. Tranquil... no wonder you can find so many chems in places like these.”  
  
Ruby laughed. “My life in certainly more exciting these days. The only things I miss from the old days are friends and family. Oh, and indoor plumbing… and chocolate, and decent coffee,” she groaned. “I guess there’s a lot of stuff.”  
  
“I’m sorry,” Danse said quietly.  
  
“It’s alright. I mean, well, there was really messed up stuff too. Riots over food, internment camps, inflation, what happened to the environment, to Canada…” Ruby took a breath. She kept finding documents and terminals detailing prewar horrors she hadn’t even known about. “There were all these problems, and I had no idea how to do anything about them. At least now I’m able to help people. Some of the prewar corporations and the government…” She was struggling to put her feelings into words. “It was like they were untouchable, everywhere and nowhere all at once.”  
  
“Like the Institute?” Hancock asked seriously.  
  
“Yes, and I think it’s part of why I hate them so much. I’ve got a lot of displaced anger… and fear, I guess. But it’s different now. I feel like I actually have a chance to _do_ something, to make a difference, if that makes sense.”  
  
“It does,” said Danse, and Hancock nodded.  
  
They returned to their scavenging. The most interesting finds were the bodies of a team of treasure hunters, who conveniently held keys and passwords. According to their notes and holotapes, most secretly planned on killing each other, after finding the treasure. The ferals had got them first, even the one who doubted the value of the treasure and planned on fleeing. The notes claimed security system was apparently top of the line though, very interesting.  
  
“Ok, now I’m even more curious.”  
  
They headed to the town hall basement, were the exhibit was supposed to be housed. It looked cramped inside, so Ruby removed her power armour.  
  
“Guard this and warn us if anything comes too close,” she told Dogmeat, and she gave him a treat. “Good boy.”    
  
They party made their way downstairs, and Ruby found a working terminal almost immediately. It belonged to a prewar janitor, and proved to be much more entertaining than the mayor’s terminal from upstairs had been.  
  
“The janitor thought the exhibit was a ridiculous waste of funds, and that its security is insane.”  
  
“Will ya look at that,” said Hancock in amazement.  
  
“What?” asked Ruby, as she abandoned the terminal to catch up with him.  
  
“Someone went through a lot of damn effort to protect whatever's down here,” he replied.  
  
“What is it?” she repeated. “Wow.” The hallway now in front of her was absolutely covered with laser tripwires, more than she had ever seen in one place. She spotted turrets too, just waiting for someone to step into the beams. What the hell was down here?  
  
“I'd definitely say that we're on the right track,” Danse said. “Proceed with extreme caution.”  
  
“I’ll be able to make SO many turrets! Fibre optics! Crystal! We’re rich, rich in turret components!”  
  
Scrapping the tripwires took awhile. Hancock killed time on the janitor’s terminal with Ruby’s Red Menace holotape. Danse checked and rechecked the area for technical documents. Ruby, still ecstatic over free components, sang along (terribly) with Diamond City Radio. Eventually, the last red beam was gone, and the group could safely continue.  
  
The next room held another terminal and a large door, flanked by two full protectron charging pods. Ruby noticed a skeleton in front of the door, probably the janitor.  
  
“Okay guys, this is it,” Ruby said, as she logged onto the terminal and opened the doors.  
  
The doors opened to reveal… another door, plus a red button. Ruby sighed and walked over to press the button. The doors opened, lights switched on one by one, and obnoxiously patriotic music started playing. The group walked in to discover their reward.  
  
“You gotta be kidding me,” Hancock complained.  
  
The “treasure” was a collection of prewar… stuff. Ruby spotted a terminal, a biometric scanner, pottery, and some holotapes. She popped a tape into the terminal and started reading.  
  
“It’s a time capsule,” Ruby said, pleased.  
  
“Pre-war artifacts are more valuable than treasure,” Danse said, his voice filled with nostalgia. “They give us glimpses at moments in time that will never repeat.”  
  
“We hope that they will remind you of our place in history, and your own,” Ruby read aloud. “As we laid the foundation for the world in which you live, so you too will lay a foundation for future generations.” She sighed, then added, “Well they weren’t wrong.”

 

  
***

 

  
By the time the companions exited the basement, the stars were just beginning to come out. They started a fire and cooked a quick supper of grilled radstag and mutfruit. Dogmeat walked from person to person, receiving food and belly rubs. Ruby wasn’t as chatty as usual.  
   
“You’re awful quiet. Something up?” Hancock asked Ruby.  
  
“I got to thinking about the stories we found in this place. People have been dying over the supposed treasure for ages. right? The last ones were willing to murder each other over it, and none of them would even want it. Then I was thinking about how the mayor was talking about a bright future, but…” Ruby paused, then just gestured to the devastated world around her. “And then I remembered that most of the town’s people probably didn’t even get a quick death; they probably became the ferals we killed earlier.”  
  
“Damn.”  
  
“Yah. I was expecting the treasure to be lame, not for it to punch me in the emotions.” She leaned back and stared at the stars. With no light pollution, they seemed so much brighter. “I wonder what happened to my friends.”  
  
Sometimes Ruby hoped they had become ghouls, but that was so unlikely. It was foolish to hope that. There were a million horrible ends they could have come to.  
  
“I wish I could have some closure, you know?” she asked. “At least with Nate I knew what happened, I killed his murderer, and I could leave flowers…” her voice trailed off.  
  
I’m sorry for your loss, soldier,” Danse said sadly.  
  
Hancock gave her a hug.  
  
“Thanks guys. You know, I wish you could have met my friends,” Ruby said wistfully. “You remind me of two of them sometimes. You would have liked them.”  
  
“Jamie and Regina?” Danse asked. She mentioned them a lot.  
  
“Yes. I knew them for so long… they were my oldest, closest friends. Somehow it’s _strange_ , that they aren’t in my life.” She paused, unsure if she should continue. “Want to know a terrible secret? I miss them more than I miss Nate.”  
  
“It ain’t terrible. No need to feel guilty,” Hancock said, and gave her another hug.  
  
“With everything you have told me about them, it makes sense that you’re still grieving,” Danse added.  
  
“Thanks,” Ruby replied, smiling slightly. “I’ll be fine. I have a lot of close friends that I can count on. It’s like a whole new life, and for the most part, I’m happy.”  
  
She lay back to stare at the stars again, but Dogmeat assumed that was an invitation to play, and jumped on her. “No, sit boy, sit! You’re tickling me!” She hugged him and started laughing softly. “Good boy.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you want to give Dogmeat treats and call him a "good boy," there’s a mod for that: “Pet - Call - Feed Dogmeat’ by Flipdeezy. It’s a very important mod.
> 
> I used a lot of quotes from the game in this. If something sounds familiar, that’s probably why. The line “everywhere and nowhere all at once,” is said by Doc Mitchell, in New Vegas, about House. I thought it was appropriate, and I love New Vegas.
> 
> One of my favourite things in Fallout games is discovering messed up prewar government and corporate policies and experiments (like Automatron’s lore on robobrains). I like to think my Sole is smart enough to have an idea about what was up, even though the game doesn’t give me many opportunities to bitch about it (Daisy’s dialogue FTW). Sorry if my Sole blathering about the past was boring. Thanks for reading!


End file.
